Hit Record Maker from AirWindows promises to measure the ‘hitness’ of your tracks. The plugin analyses various sonic aspects of your music and visualises them in a clear display. But can a plugin really predict whether a track will be a hit? And it’s freeware – of course!
Everything you need to know about the Hit Record Maker plugin
Hit Record Maker: The secret behind your next hit
And this is how it should work: AirWindows’ Hit Record Maker measures four important parameters of your song: Peak Level, RMS Level, Slew Energy and Zero Crossings of the audio signal. These values are then displayed graphically on three levels.
In the top row, the plugin displays the RMS level as a shaded area, representing the dynamic density of the mix. Above this is a cloud of dots marking the signal peaks. A track that has been heavily optimised for loudness will have a narrower distribution of peaks. Hit Record Maker rates the latter as favourable for a ‘hit’ sound.
In the middle row, the plugin visualises the slew energy, which concentrates on the energy of the high frequencies of the audio signal. The plugin shows where the most energetic events occur in the high frequencies and how they are distributed over the time of the song. The goal – for a hit song – is a balanced and present representation of the high frequencies.
The bottom row measures the zero-crossing rate, i.e. how often the audio signal crosses the zero line. This gives an indication of the harmonic complexity of the signal. A higher value indicates a more complex and therefore possibly more attractive signal. The readings are also visualised as a point cloud, giving an indication of which frequency ranges contribute most to the sound structure.
How Hit Record Maker can improve your sound
In addition, Hit Record Maker displays a ‘hitness’ of a track with rises, falls and colour changes depending on the sound characteristics measured. In the beginning the curve always starts at zero, so you need to let it run for a while before it becomes meaningful.
Hit Record Maker then gives a two-digit ‘hitness’ rating from AA to FF (similar to school marks), accompanied by short text descriptions such as ‘Attention’ or ‘Biggest’. However, these descriptions are more of a rough guide.
But does it really work? The developer of AirWindows believes that certain sound profiles can be measured in successful tracks. Hit Record Maker is a tool that shows how well a production meets these criteria, which are often found in successful songs.
Tests with classic albums produced before the era of the loudness war show that Hit Record Maker is sensitive to the quality characteristics of recordings often praised by audiophiles: A high crest factor, a tight correlation between signal peaks and slew rate, and a zero crossover rate concentrated in the mid-to-high frequency range.
Tip: In audio production and mastering, the crest factor is an important parameter for assessing the dynamics of a piece of music. A high crest factor indicates a dynamic, undistorted signal, while a low crest factor indicates strong compression and possibly a reduction in sound dynamics.
Interestingly, Hit Record Maker does not like the sound of music produced during the loudness war period. This supports the audiophile view that over-emphasis on loudness and limiting the crest factor can lead to poorer sounding music. However, there are also styles of music where this ‘more-than-loud’ sound is part of the style, and that the plugin shows weaknesses by not taking sufficient account of the explosive energy of such music.
Finally, the question remains as to whether Hit Record Maker really has the potential to predict the success of a track, or whether it just provides interesting visual feedback. The fact is that the plugin is good at identifying great-sounding audio recordings, but there is evidence that it has a bias towards certain production styles.
For producers who tend towards these preferred styles, Hit Record Maker can be a useful tool for checking your mix. However, there are just as many professional productions that do not meet the ‘hitness’ criteria of the tool, but still sound good.
Ultimately, the human ear is still the best tool for judging sound. Nevertheless, this plugin is an interesting and entertaining tool worth trying out – and maybe it will lead to the next big hit. And it doesn’t even cost 1 cent. Thanks, AirWindows!
Pricing and Specifications for the AirWindows Plugin
AirWindows Hit Record Maker is available free of charge from the manufacturer’s website. It runs on Windows, Linux and macOS (including Apple Silicon support) as VST3, CLAP, LV2 and AU.
More information about AirWindows and Hit Record Maker
